As the story of Newt Scamander continues, the best hope for Fantastic Beast 4 is to ignore Harry Potter. Beginning with the promising Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them and leaving off with the third film, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, the films acted as a quasi-prequel to the Harry Potter movies following the adventures of magizoologist Newt Scamander. Used to explore the wider Wizarding World and the past of established characters like Albus Dumbledore, the Fantastic Beasts series expanded the lore of Harry Potter while setting the stage for the adventures of the boy who lived.
What began as a series about magical creatures and two worlds that misunderstood them swiftly became a series of political thrillers focused on Dumbledore, his relationship with Gellert Grindelwald, and plot threads leading back to the Harry Potter era. One of the biggest follies of the series was that Fantastic Beasts used Harry Potter as a crutch, forcing retcons, characters, and excuses to return to Hogwarts rather than letting it blossom as its own story. If the series wants a future, Fantastic Beasts 4 must escape the shadow of Harry Potter and have the confidence to allow Newt to create his own legacy.
How Fantastic Beasts 4 Could Ignore Harry Potter
Considered the best in the trilogy, the original Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them worked mainly because much of the story dedicated itself to Newt’s profession as a magizoologist. Newt’s perspective as a biologist is unique and allows the series to explore stories Harry Potter usually couldn’t. A Fantastic Beasts 4 movie as such needs to reincorporate Newt’s original message: “There are no strange creatures, only blinkered people.” It’d be interesting to see a movie about centaurs, merpeople, and the sentient creatures who live adjacent to Wizarding civilization – or perhaps tell a story explaining how werewolves like Fenrir Greyback became molded by the fears of witches and wizards. These topics would allow Newt to return to real-world issues animals face, like the exotic pet trade, poaching, and conservation. Additionally, the canon established Newt went on to have a family, so another film could explore future generations of Scamanders while hopefully shying away from Hogwarts. Objectively, Fantastic Beasts 4 should be faithful to the title, focusing on the wonders of the natural world instead of a precursor to Harry, Hermione, and Ron’s stories.
Will Fantastic Beasts 4 Happen?
The Fantastic Beasts franchise originally envisioned itself as a five-part film series and only delivered on three, making audiences wonder if there’s hope for a Fantastic Beasts 4. Between the disappointing reviews and box office returns of the third film, as cited by Newt’s actor, Eddie Redmayne (via IndieWire), along with controversies surrounding Fantastic Beasts and Harry Potter, it seems unlikely, but not impossible. After all, Warner Bros. has expressed interest in more Wizarding World movies, and with Grindelwald still on the loose, it does leave Fantastic Beasts open for another sequel. This means the series may have the chance it needs to course correct, tell a new story, and give audiences the finale that Fantastic Beasts‘ Newt Scamander deserves.
Fantastic Beasts started strong with a charming cast, ambitious scope, and new ideas to explore – although as the sequels progressed, it never realized that the world was too big to be solely focused on Harry Potter’s future adventures, nor the potential of an independent story in that world. The Fantastic Beasts series doesn’t need to provide more context for the Harry Potter movies; it needs to move past them. Although unlikely, it’s not too late for Fantastic Beasts 4 to let a new story begin, and finally prove the magic of the Wizarding World mythology is more than just a story of a boy who lived.
